James Sadler and Sons Ltd was a

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and por ...

manufacturer founded in 1882 by James Sadler in

Burslem Burslem ( ) is one of the six towns that along with Hanley, Tunstall, Fenton, Longton and Stoke-upon-Trent form part of the city of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. It is often referred to as the "mother town" of Stoke on Trent. T ...

Stoke-on-Trent Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England, with an area of . In 2019, the city had an estimated population of 256,375. It is the largest settlement ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

History

The company specialised in " Brown Betty"

teapot A teapot is a vessel used for steeping tea leaves or a herbal mix in boiling or near-boiling water, and for serving the resulting infusion which is called tea. It is one of the core components of teaware. Dry tea is available either in tea ba ...

s. Early versions were

terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based ceramic glaze, unglazed or glazed ceramic where the pottery firing, fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, a ...

with a transparent glaze, and were shaped by jiggering, jolleying and

slipcasting Slip casting, or slipcasting, is a ceramic forming technique for pottery and other ceramics, especially for shapes not easily made on a wheel. In this method, a liquid clay body slip (usually mixed in a blunger) is poured into plaster mo ...

, later they were white

earthenware Earthenware is glazed or unglazed nonvitreous pottery that has normally been fired below . Basic earthenware, often called terracotta, absorbs liquids such as water. However, earthenware can be made impervious to liquids by coating it with a ce ...

glazed with a Rockingham brown glaze and shaped entirely by

. They began making novelty shaped teapots in the 1930s, Crinoline ladies, a father Christmas teapot and, in 1938, the iconic racing car teapot, followed by a tank with "Old Bill" as the lid in 1947. The early pre war racing car teapots were usually decorated with silver lustre and are marked "Made In England" with the design registration number 820236 impressed on the base. They were glazed in green, yellow, cream, black, blue, grey, pink and maroon. The licence plate reads "OKT42". There is also a version decorated with

Mabel Lucie Attwell Mabel Lucie Attwell (4 June 1879 – 5 November 1964) was a British illustrator and comics artist. She was known for her cute, nostalgic drawings of children. Her drawings are featured on many postcards, advertisements, posters, books and fi ...

cartoon characters. In 1999 the product line was cut from 850 to just 340 and some production was outsourced overseas. In April 2000 the company went into receivership and Churchill China purchased the right to use the company's brand name and designs. Peter Sadler sparked controversy by blaming his company's failure on cheap foreign imports.

References

* Street-Porter, Janet The British teapot Angus & Robertson, 1981 {{DEFAULTSORT:Sadler and Sons, James English pottery Ceramics manufacturers of England Staffordshire pottery Teapots Companies based in Stoke-on-Trent Design companies established in 1882 Manufacturing companies established in 1882 1882 establishments in England